An Experiment with a New Method of Watering Orchids

“Orchidsare easy to grow but hard to water." This is an old saying circulating among orchid-growing friends. Therefore, many orchid enthusiasts believe that as long as you master the watering technique, thengrowing orchidscounts as having got through the door. But how to master the watering technique is a difficult matter. Even though predecessors left many key tips such as "three parts wet, seven parts dry" and "not dry in autumn, not wet in winter," these are truly hard to apply in practice. Because climate conditions differ from place to place, homecultivationenvironments differ, and the pots and media each person uses differ, the water storage and water retention capacity and the evaporation capacity inside the orchid pot also differ. This brings great difficulty toorchidwatering. Most people fear that watering too much or too often will cause root rot and plant death, so in line with the tradition that "orchids want dry, chrysanthemums want wet" they water as little as possible, not realizing thatorchidsare also living plants, and once the water supply is insufficient, they too will suffer from insufficient nutrients and poor growth. The author lives in the cold high-latitude region of Northeast China, where the wind is strong and the air is dry, so it is impossible to copy the watering experience of many orchid friends in the South.Growing orchidsfor more than ten years, I was also puzzled by the watering problem for more than ten years. Several years ago, among products purchased from the South, the author discovered a plastic flower pot made in two sections, with many holes in the bottom and two water-absorbing cords. At the time I was attracted by this kind of pot. After repeated study, I felt that this pot used forgrowing orchidsshould be quite good, and if successful, it could solve the key problem of difficult watering in orchid growing. This kind of flower pot is composed of upper and lower parts. The upper part is a pot body with many holes in the bottom and two water-absorbing cotton cords, and the lower part is a 3 cm high water storage tray. When using it, you only need to plant the flower in the pot body and then set it on the water storage tray. In daily care, you only need to fill the water storage tray with enough water, and the water can be absorbed and conducted through the water-absorbing cotton cords by the principle of siphon action and slowly supplied to the flowercultivationmedium, and then the medium replenishes the water to the flower. By adjusting the thickness and length of the water-absorbing cotton cords, the amount of water supplied can be controlled. At that time I moved two pots ofCymbidium ensifoliuminto this kind of flower pot for an experiment. All daily management (except watering) was the same as for other orchids. After one year, the test effect was clearly better than that of the other orchids. Not only were the leaves lush and the flowers abundant, but when repotting I found that the root system was white and thick, and had many fuzzy root hairs tightly adhering to thecultivationmedium. At the same time, I also found that many flower roots drilled downward through the bottom holes of the pot body and went all the way into the water storage tray. This phenomenon delighted me greatly, so I moved all the orchids into this kind of flower pot. The next year, the two pots ofCymbidium ensifoliumunexpectedly bloomed 3 times, and the last blooming was in the severe winter of December. The most productive pot, 'Yunü Su', unexpectedly produced seven scapes at one time; with dozens of flowers blooming, their fragrance drifted outside the room. The rest of the orchids also grew very well. Because this water supply method is not the traditional watering from above, the word "watering" seems inappropriate. Therefore, I call this method the "bottom automatic water supply method." Summarizing the experience of the "bottom automatic water supply method," I think it has the following advantages. 1. The water supply is uniform, and it can always keep the inside of the orchid pot moist but not soggy and moist but not dry, facilitating normal respiration and vigorous growth of orchid roots. 2. It saves labor. Adding water once can last for several days or even more than ten days. For people who are busy with work and do not have much spare time to care for orchidFlower'sflowers, this is a great blessing. 3. Because water is drawn upward from the bottom of the flower pot, it induces orchid roots to continuously extend upward, making the roots long and strong. 4. It solves the phenomena of soil and water loss and muddy water overflowing from the bottom of the pot caused by watering from above, making the environment clean and tidy. 5. It solves the long-standing difficult problem that "growing orchids is easy but watering is hard," and orchid friends no longer need to worry about being unable to judge the degree of dryness and wetness inside the orchid pot. It should be noted that the water quality in the water storage tray must be kept clean and free of pollution. A small amount of high-quality quick-acting water-soluble fertilizer (such as Huabao, Huiyou Yunda Zhongtian, etc.) can also be added to the water regularly for better results. Since last year, I have felt that the bottom-water-supply pots I used before were simple and inelegant in appearance, and the pot body was rather short, so they did not match orchids very harmoniously. Therefore, after careful research and improvement, I used attractive and elegant ceramic, plastic, and other flower pots, matched with a ventilation tube cover, self-made water-absorbing cotton cords (absorbent cotton string, nylon rope, and the like are all acceptable), and a water storage tray that can hold water without losing its good looks, combining them into a set of bottom automatic water supply orchid-growing pot utensils. The effect of use is the same as the kind I originally used. If orchid friends are interested, you might as well give it a try. Mailing address: Unit 6, Floor 4, Building 17, Heihang, No. 170 Qiantang Street, Daowai District, Harbin Postcode: 150020 Telephone: O451-8347689 (home) 8614103 (office) (Liu Jun)